


Things Never Change

by hidley



Category: Red vs. Blue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-04
Updated: 2014-05-04
Packaged: 2018-01-21 23:10:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1567436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hidley/pseuds/hidley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wash escapes from Locus' soldiers with the others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things Never Change

'Where the HELL have you been?!'

Another bomb went off right by his ear, throwing him backwards into the Private who had suddenly appeared at his side, and he cursed. Grabbing the other man by the collar, he wrenched him away from the blast, shoving his head to down avoid the debris flying over their heads. Hearing Tucker yell from under him, he forced their way back towards cover, the side of a huge boulder from which the Reds were returning fire. Badly.

Sarge was managing to hit a target every third shot or so, and Simmons every fifth, but Donut and Grif were missing every mark, bullets flying from their guns and going straight into the side of the cliff on the other side of the canyon. With a shout towards them, Wash threw three unpinned grenades, relieved as Donut caught and started throwing them immediately, taking out several troops at once. Out of future cubes, Grif opted for throwing them as well, and he too had much more success than he did with his rifle.

Backing himself against the rock and reloading, Wash glanced at Tucker, who had picked himself up from the ground and was standing with his sword in hand, his visor glaring at him.

'Saving all our fucking asses, that's where!' He shouted over the noise. 'That fucking killing machine can actually do some god-damn killing now!'

Grunting ambiguously, Wash stood, shooting over the top of their cover, taking out six soldiers with six bullets before ducking down again. 'Grab a rifle. There's not a lot you can do with that thing from this distance.' He gestured to the energy sword.

Tucker laughed once, his voice rough. 'Oh, I'm fully aware,' he said, and then ran out into the oncoming fire.

'Tucker!'  
Wash almost ran out after him, watching in horror as the Private shot forward, blocking bullets with the brunt of his sword and slashing the enemy down with it one by one. He slipped down behind a water drum and glanced back at Wash, helmet covering the grin that was surely plastered on his face. Wash got over his shock and instead seethed, angrily standing again and opening fire, keeping one eye on the blue armour just out of his line of sight.

Tucker stayed where he was for a moment, seemingly waiting for a gap in which to progress forward again.  
'Tucker!' Wash yelled again. 'Stay there!'

The ex-Freelancer heard a chuckle in his radio that made him see red. 'Like you said, Wash. Can't do much from back here.'

 _'Tucker_!'

The Private shot up again and advanced, taking out two soldiers in quick succession and dodging those who came at him, slamming them to the ground. Wash would be proud of his agility if he wasn't absolutely terrified for him. If he didn't get Tucker to take cover /right now/, the Private was going to get himself killed.

Unable to stand it, Wash bit out a frustrated curse before yelling at Sarge to cover him. The Red didn't reply, but immediately swivelled round on his heel and shifted his line of fire to Wash's, leaving the other soldier free to sprint forward, ducking underneath the flurry of bullets. He saw two grenades thrown over his head in front of him and quickly slipped behind cover to avoid the return debris. He couldn't see Tucker anymore, and as he moved forward yet again to their next line of defence, he could no longer hear him laughing over the radio.

Cursing over and over again, Wash, against all his better judgement and sense, pushed even further away from the rest of his team and into the centre of the battlefield. He was running out of things to take cover behind, and he knew that eventually he was going to have to either stay put, or be obliterated.

But still he had no visual on his Blue team mate, and as the fire got more and more concentrated in his vicinity, there was not a chance in hell he was going to be able to spend time searching. Bullet shells littered the ground all around him and looking back, he could see the Reds start to retreat back towards the caves.

A burst of static came through his radio and Wash's heart leaped as he heard Tucker's voice come through.

'Wash? Felix's guys have finally got their sorry asses up here to help. We're retreating. Where the hell are you?'

Wash indulged in a millisecond to curse the day he ever met Lavernius Tucker, before biting out that he was on his way.

It was only then when he was reminded of his position, and that fact that now the Red's had ceased their attack, all enemy guns were aimed directly towards him. He was completely pinned down.

A storm of unfamiliar troops surged up from where he faced and had him panicked for a moment before they began to return fire back at the enemy, cheering and chanting all the while. Taking advantage of the cover fire, Wash pulled a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin with his teeth and threw it as hard as he could over the boulder he was knelt behind. As the explosion went off, he ran, keeping low and sprinting back towards their side of the firing line.

As he shot past where the Red's had been previously, he knelt and turned on his knee, shooting back briefly before chucking another grenade.

'What the fuck are you doing?!' Tucker screamed in his ear. 'Run!'

Again, Wash waited for the explosion before taking off again, running directly for the cave back to the bases, towards Tucker who was still standing by the entrance, angrily motioning for him to hurry the fuck up. Felix was a few feet behind him, clearly yelling at Tucker to retreat, but the Blue soldier didn't move until Wash had reached them, and he grabbed the Freelancer's arm and dragged him along with him as they ran together.

Looking behind him awkwardly, Wash caught a glimpse of Freckles standing himself up, now fully charged. With a fleeting surge of guilt, he shouted out to the Mantis.

'Freckles!'

It turned its head to him.

' _Shake_!'

The machine paused for a moment, before turning back to the front, and raising it's huge mechanical leg.

'Come on!' Tucker yelled at him as Freckles slammed his foot down, with much more force than before, and the roof of the cave trembled and began to fall. Wash felt a blow to the top of his head as rocks rained down on them both, but kept running. Tucker's hand had slid down his arm to his own gloved one as he hauled Wash along, refusing to let him fall behind.

Eventually they got to the point where the cave stabilised again, and they slowed, panting harshly.

'Where are the others?' Wash asked.

'Up ahead,' was his reply before got sucker punched right in his visor. Recoiling back, Wash gasped out, his hand ripping away from Tucker's and up to his helmeted face. He quickly unlocked it from his armour and tugged it off, throwing it to the ground as he stared at Tucker in pained anger.

'What the hell was that for?!'

'Why the hell were you so far out into the field?!' Tucker rapidly shot back, yanking his own helmet off. 'You could have been fucking killed!'

'I was trying to stop _you_!' Wash shouted back. 'You went running off all fucking hero complex and all, what the hell else was I supposed to do? Let you get fucking shot?'

''You don't fucking follow behind someone in the middle of a fight! You trust them to know what they're doing!'

'You gave me no warning at all! You just disappeared across the whole fucking base and then zipped back just to throw yourself into the firing line again!'

'I had a plan!' Tucker yelled. 'I'm a fucking lousy shot on a rifle, I went closer to get the dick-heads closest with this!' He grabbed his inactivated word from his belt and shook it in Wash's face. 'I couldn't do that from a hundred fucking metres away could I?'

'Well you could have fucking TOLD me what you-'

'HEY!'

Both soldiers' head whipped round to glare angrily at Felix, who had come back and stood down from them, further along the cave. 'What?' They both spat.

'You can have your Lover's spat back at base,' Felix said, unphased by the hostile attention. 'For now we need to get a fucking move on before those bastards decide to break through and follow us. So come on. Now.'

He turned and walked back around the corner a way before stopping, aware that neither soldier had moved. 'I said NOW.'


End file.
